In common tilt-adjustable motor vehicle steering columns, the vertical position of a steering wheel relative to a driver seated in the vehicle is adjusted by pivoting a tilt-housing on which the steering wheel is rotatably supported up and down about a lateral centerline. A lock shoe on one of a stationary mast jacket of the steering column and the tilt-housing has a plurality of notches which seat on a pin on the other in discrete vertical positions of the steering wheel. A positive attribute of this construction is that it successfully resists angular displacement of the tilt-housing even when substantial forces are applied to the steering wheel urging upward pivotal movement of the tilt-housing. A less positive attribute of this construction is that it provides only as many adjusted positions of the steering wheel as there are notches in the lock shoe. Other tilt-adjustable motor vehicle steering columns have been proposed in which infinite adjustability is achieved by a clamp which induces friction between moveable and stationary elements of the steering column. Practical embodiments of such friction clamps, however, do not match the positive retention performance of the aforesaid lock shoe construction when the tilt-housing is forced upward.